Hard Mode
by Darkhymns
Summary: Lloyd loved his friends, really. But sometimes he just wished that they would... fight a little smarter? It also didn't help when the enemies they fought against were actual cheaters. (Or, a personal experience in playing TOS' hard mode).


**A while ago, me and my boyfriend played the Steam version of Tales of Symphonia on hard, and then I remembered how dumb the A.I. was. (guess who we played?)**

 **The trick is to just have Raine on a shortcut, at all times. Forever.**

* * *

Lloyd didn't understand why Raine had the urge to go near the enemy after every spell she cast.

"Professor!" He ran towards the chimera that she was heading for, trying his best to block its next attack before it could strike his teacher. Raine went over to its side to hit it over the head with her staff, giving no heed to Lloyd. "Do you need to do that? I've got it handled."

"I need to get back my mana, Lloyd. This is the option available to me."

Lloyd shoved the chimera away with a final slash to ensure its defeat. "Just use an orange gel!"

"Well, Lloyd, as long as you do your job of diverting its attention well, it should be no problem."

Colette floated up them once the last enemy was done with, leaving trails of pink sparkles in her flight. "It's okay, Lloyd. We beat them!"

"Yeah, I guess…" Still, he wished he didn't have to rush back and forth to make sure no one hit their spell casters, especially when a spell caster went up to their front lines. "You did good, Colette."

"Thanks!"

To their side, they heard a groan. There was Genis lying on the ground, kendama lying uselessly along with him.

"What happened to him?" Lloyd asked. Raine was already rushing over.

Colette looked morose. "I guess he must have gotten hit by one of the monsters when he went in."

A wave of irritation went through Lloyd. Must have been a Sage thing to just go to the frontlines and not learn to stay back…

* * *

"Zelos, please attack them already."

"Dude, don't rush me! I almost got this spell down."

"They're going after the Professor! You're not gonna get it in time!"

Indeed, he didn't. Lloyd, surrounded by three other monsters, could only watch as Raine fainted when the basilisk tail swiped at her knees. She went down gracelessly, instantly knocked out cold.

"First aid!" Zelos shouted then. A green flash surrounded him instead of his first, now incapacitated target. "Oh, whoops."

"Damn it!" Lloyd kicked at a bat's wing, sliced down a rock golem, but the basilisk aimed its cry at his face. "Hurry, use a life bottle on-!" He was turned to stone before he could even finish his sentence.

Zelos was finally going to the front, slashing away at two basilisks. Colette heard Lloyd's request though and gave the bottle to her teacher. "There! Please stay back, Professor!"

"Thanks, Colette." Raine started casting immediately, not having moved back like Colette requested. "First aid!" The green aura surrounded Zelos, who was dodging and swerving and only attacking sometimes.

"Love ya!" he said with a wink to her, which a golem took opportunity to smack him across the face.

"Um, Professor…" Colette eyed the still petrified Lloyd. "Could you use Recover soon?"

"I was getting to that," Raine replied. She started casting again, still not having moved back, and predictably getting hit in the side by a shrieking bat to interrupt her.

"L-let's run away for now!" They all listened to Colette then, both Raine and Zelos hightailing it out of there. She made sure to grab the stone-turned Lloyd and carry him away in her arms, barely mindful at all about the weight.

* * *

It got worse when they had to form the pacts with the summon spirits.

"Show me your power," Celsius had challenged, floating before them with her giant wolf.

Lloyd had been confident. "Okay, we totally got this!"

Not even one minute later before Sheena fainted outright, running straight into the wolf and getting knocked back. "Um! Okay, we can still do this!"

Then Raine, once out of mana, also charged in and fell to Celsius' ice lance attack. "Excuse me, _what?"_

"Lloyd, use a life bottle!" Colette shouted from behind him, trying to divert the wolf's attention to her.

"Alright! I almost-" Then Celsius slammed her hand into the ground, making the earth sprout giant ice blocks that knocked both Lloyd and Colette into the air. The wind was knocked out of him instantly. Colette was too hurt to even manifest her wings anymore.

"You're still too weak." Celsius crossed her arms, looking thoroughly unimpressed. "You need to get stronger in order to be worthy of my power."

Despite it all, Lloyd was a sore loser. He got up, bones aching, but his mind freshly angry. "Can't we have more than four people?!"

"Mithos did not need the aid of another to defeat me," Celsius stated.

"Yeah, bud, remember what that Gnome guy said?" Zelos stated, slapping Lloyd's back. "But hey, just have me take your place next time! I bet I can do it better."

As an answer, Lloyd stomped his heel in Zelos' space.

"Ow! My foot!"

* * *

When they battled Efreet, Lloyd was wondering if Sheena, honestly, even really needed to be here?

"We're with Sheena, so, just testing us instead of her is still testing out her power, right?"

Efreet had to take a moment before answering. "If the pact maker wishes to form a pact with me, she must demonstrate her worth. Thus, she must fight me."

Sheena turned to Lloyd questioningly. "Do you… not want me to fight with you guys?"

"Um, no, no! It's totally cool!" he lied through his teeth. "I just thought you were still tired from the last one." _I mean, Presea I think would do a little better…and Regal can stun pretty good. Heck, Genis would be great for this._

It didn't help when Efreet would just cause an _actual explosion_ in front of them and instantly take out two of their group because what the heck was that all about?

And then Raine went in _again!_ _Into the explosion!_

"Professor, why?!" Too frantic to waste any more life bottles, Lloyd hacked away at the summon spirit, trying his damndest to make it flinch. Already the effects of Colette's Holy Song were fading. "Argh! Stop it! Hunting Beast! Oh, wait."

"Lloyd!" Colette admonished him. But Efreet had already fallen down, only to get back up again and be strangely impervious to any more flinching attacks. He started to cast another spell.

Lloyd foresaw a painful explosion in his near future.

* * *

"Hey, Lloyd," Zelos asked the boy, who was still bandaging his cuts from Shadow's stupid claws. "Why don't you just switch Colette out and put me in? _Clearly_ you need another swords user in there, and I'm _obviously_ the guy for the job. Heck, I'm probably the only healer you need too, hunny!" His laughter rang loudly within the hallways of the temple.

Lloyd took a deep breath, then gently laid his hand on the redhead's shoulder. He leaned in close with a smile, hidden by the temple's darkness. "Zelos, can you do Holy Song like Colette?"

"Well, no-"

"Then _get out of my face."_

* * *

It was just illegal for one of the Sylph to aim their arrow over his head and shoot for Colette at every waking moment of his life _oh my god._

Which of course had to make her restart the casting time for her Holy Song to finally go off.

He was shoving both Lemon and Pineapple gels into his mouth every few seconds just to _live_ and _attack_. And it didn't help when Raine kept going in and getting stuck in between enemies and then _just staying there WHY._

Of course, Sheena had fainted. _AGAIN._

Lloyd was so tired. He then forgot to guard correctly, and went down along with the others. "Arrghh, this is unfair!"

"It seems you are not strong enough for our power!" The three flying spirits looked down at them with their incredibly bright and gaudy outfits. "Come back when you have learned."

"You know, I'd like to fight one of these summon spirits someday," Genis had complained, standing along with the others who could only watch.

"Believe me, I'd like that too!" Lloyd had shouted, not feeling like sparing any feelings again today. Sheena looked ready to sink into a hole…or just trip into one.

"Hey, Lloyd, why don't we take a break first?" Colette smiled at him, helping him get to his feet. "Maybe we can go to Luin and check out how the rebuilding efforts are going?"

Colette's optimism affected his own. Not that he was totally happy about losing, but the sting of it was less now. "Sure, maybe we could help out with the donations, too."

* * *

"It seems you have finally grown stronger!" spoke the lead Sylph, picking herself up from defeat. "We will grant our power to you."

Lloyd, with a slow blink, looked down at his newly-acquired weapon.

"I can't believe these paper fans are stronger than my swords made out of dragon fangs."

"I like my weapon though!" Colette shook her tambourines, laughing at the musical jingle they made.

Raine was busy sweeping the floor with her new broom/healing staff. "They're only amplified due to our Expsheres. Nothing that special about them."

"But I was using swords that were literally made out of _dragon fangs._ " Lloyd swung his paper fans, honestly liking the little _thwack!_ sound they made when hitting something. "I mean, it's still cool though…"

Sheena, still a little saddened by Lloyd's comment from before, looked at her new colorful cards a bit blandly.

"I guess we were lucky Luin was selling these strange weapons." Colette clapped her hands, which in turn, clapped her tambourines together. "Maybe they'll sell dragon-fanged weapons next time!"

"Like dragon-fanged paper fans!" Lloyd shouted excitedly.

Raine looked at them both with a sigh. "Now how would that work?"

"Oh, I dunno. It'd work by _not running into the enemy!"_ he shot back, still bitter.

Raine was unfazed. "You do that plenty yourself!"

"But I'm supposed to!"

The three Sylphs looked on in confusion, their presence forgotten as both teacher and student fought a verbal match. Colette was still fascinated by the wonder of her tambourines. "Yes, hello? About our power though?"

Sheena walked up to the dais, holding out her hand. "Just grant it to me please."


End file.
